Vacuum cleaner wand head



Oct. 31, 1961 v. A. MAMONTOV VACUUM CLEANER WAND HEAD Filed Aug. 10,1959 INVENTOR. VLADIMIR A. MAMONTOV BY l d/w ATTORNEY States The presentinvention relates to the construction of a vacuum cleaner wand head inwhich an air driven motor operates a rotary beater. The wand isparticularly adapted for use with a readily movable tank type vacuumcleaner or with a fixed suction unit. In either case, a rigid tubularwand handle is connected by means of a flexible hose to a vacuum orsuction, creating machine which, when operating, moves air thru the wandhead and the rigid tubular handle, the flexible tube and the vacuumproducing machine. The head is provided with a suction opening that isadapted to be placed in opposition to the surface, such as a rug orother material, to be cleaned; the beater operates in the head and has.a plurality of rug contacting elements adapted to each repeatedlycontact the surface of such rug or other material as the beater rotates;and the beater is belt driven by the air motor which is in the form ofa. multiple turn air screw located inside of the tubular wand andcoaxial therewith.

There are, in the prior art, air driven beaters in wand heads such asshown by Best, 1,078,185, November 11, 1913, but none is known that hasthe compactness and cooperating features which makes the presentlydisclosed device so desirable in construction and operation.

Having in mind the defects of the prior art devices, it is an object ofthe present invention to construct a wand head with a beater driven byan air screw motor having its screw located in the heads tubular handleand coaxial thereof.

A further object of the invention is the construction of the wand "headso that the beater reel may be easily removed therefrom, and so that thebelt drive may be easily replaced or adjusted.

Another object of the invention is the construction of the beater so asto provide a plurality of material contacting elements that are heavy,have a large radius of gyration related to the axis of rotation of thebeater, and are devoid of radial stiffness with respect to the beateraxis so that the radial stiffness of the beater does not constitute aload on the beater drive, and so that the beater load will decrease asthe beater slows. down so as to prevent stalling thereof.

A still further object of the invention is to provide the head with aplurality of guides which properly space the beater from a materialsurface, rub, or scrape, such surface, and channel air across suchsurface.

The above mentioned objects and others that will be apparent hereinafterare achieved by a construction in which a wand head is provided with aplurality of angularly related ribs on its material to be cleanedcontacting surface adjacent the elongated rectangular suction opening ofthe head to provide scraping edges and air slots leading to the suctionopening; a brush adjacent such opening; a beater inside the head withits shaft parallel to and coextensive with the elongation of suchopening, and having, from such shaft, radially extending wire loops withthe free end of each loop threaded thru a metal ring that serves as ahammer, or swingle, for the beater; and integral with the head a shortportion of the tubular wand handle, in which is placed an axial flow airscrew which is adapted to drive the beater thru a belt and to derive itspower from the flow of air thru the head and wand handle to the suctionunit.

A device conforming to the construction outlined above atent ice ishereinafter described in detail and shown in the accompanying drawings,in which:

FIGURE 1 is an elevational view of the wand head, mainly in sectiontransverse medially of the beater shaft thereof and of the wand handle.

FIGURES 2, 3, and 4 are sectional views and FIGURE 5 is a view, on thelines 2--2, 3-3, 44, and 55, respectively, of FIGURE 1.

In the drawings, there is shown a wand head 11 which has integraltherewith and faired' thereto, an air fan housing 12 which, also, servesas a short section of a tubular wand handle of which a small portion 13of the lower part thereof is shown joined to the fan housing. The wandhead 11 is provided with a cylindrical beater casing 14', having formedtherein an elongated rectangular inlet opening 16. Contiguous with, inthe plane of, and continuous peripherally of such opening is a plate 17that serves as the sole plate of the head and which plate is adapted torest on a material to be cleaned. The lower face of the sole plate isprovided with a plurality of spaced apart angularly related ribs 18which provide air slots 19 between adjacent ribs. The ribs are angularlyrelated in that those on the left half of the surface are at an angle tothose on the right half. The ribs on a half are parallel to each other;and all ribs are at the same angle to the edge of opening 16. Further,the ribs are at an angle to the elongated direction of the suctionopening so that as the ribs slide along the surface of the material tobe cleaned they will not leave groove marks and their edges will scrapeloose foreign matter adhering to the material so that the air streamsbetween the ribs will pick up and remove such matter from the material.Also, the ribs being at an angle to the direction in which the head isnormally, usually, moved over the material surface, all portions of thesurface will be exposed to the slots, no portion will be blanked by arib. Along the back side of the casing 14, there is provided adownwardly opening brush slot 21 in which is guided a brush 22 with itsbristles projecting downwardly from the slot and thru the sole plate 17so as to contact and brush a surface as the head moves thereover. Akeeper plate 23 at each end of the slot is secured to the underside ofthe sole plate to retain the brush in its slot. Suitable springs 24 urgethe brush downwardly against a surface and toward or against the keepers23.

Inside of the beater casing 14 is a beater reel assembly 26 whichconsists of a reel shaft 27, a flanged pulley 28 which is coaxial of theshaft, evenly spaced apart and radial of said shaft, wire loops 29 thatare arranged parallel to the shaft 2'7 in two diametrically opposeduniseriate rows, and metal annuli 31, the head of each loop beingthreaded thru the opening of an annulus 31. In the drawings, the annuli31 are shown as if held away from the shaft 27 by centrifugal force. Oneend of the shaft 27 is journalled in a fixed end of the casing and theother end is journalled in a removable casing end 32 that is held in theopen end of the casing by a pair of spring detents 33, each of which issecured to the removable end and each of which has a portion fitting ina recess 34 formed in the inside of the casing adjacent the open end.With this construction, the reel 26 may be easily removed from thecasing 14 by first removing the casing end 32. In FIGURES 2 and 5, theassembly of beater shaft, wire loops, and annuli has been rotated ninetydegrees from the showing in FIGURE 1.

In the air fan housing 12. is an air screw assembly 36 that has an airscrew shaft 37 which has secured thereto a single elongated helicalribbon 38 that is on edge with respect to the shaft, a pair of shafthangers 39, 40, one adjacent each end of the shaft, extending across thehousing, and having a bearing in each for the shaft. The lower hangerrests against a stop 42 formed with and inside of the housing, and bothhangers may be pressed into place or secured to and inside of thehousing in any suitable manner. Thrust collars such as the one 43 shownmay. be secured to the shaft 37 and bear against a shaft-bearing in ahanger. A coned pulley 44 is secured to and coaxial of the shaft 37 atits lower end, the end closest to the reel 26, and an endless fiat belt46 passes between and around the two pulleys 28, 44. The bearings ofboth shafts 27, 37 may be of the ball type. A hatch 47 is provided inthe fairing between the head and the fan housing for access to thepulleys and the belt. The hatch is closed by a cover 48 which is held inplace by a pair of spring clips 49, each of which is secured to thecover and engages inside the hatch opening edge.

The disclosed device is operated by providing a suitable suction sourceconnected to the wand handle 13 and, thus to the air fan housing 12 sothat a required amount of air will flow thru the air fan housing 12 andover the air screw 36, and thru the beater casing 14, entering theretothru the casing inlet opening 16. The air screw helical ribbon 38 is soshaped in proportion to the air velocity that it will provide the powernecessary to turn the beater reel at its desired rate under the givenworking conditions. The two pulleys 28, 44 are proportioned to give thisrate. The energy gives to the air stream is sufficient to so drive thefan and reel, and to do the needed entraining of dirt, lint, or dustfound on the material being operated on by the reel and its hammers.With the beater being properly driven, the head 11 is placed on thesurface of the material to be cleaned with the sole plate 17 and thebrush 22 in contact therewith, and the beater hammers 31 repeatedlyhitting such material. The hammers loosen the dust and dirt for the airflowing thru the head to pick up and carry such to the suction unit. Thebrush 22 and the edges of the ribs 13, also, aid in loosening dust anddirt for removal by the air stream thru the head. The hammer annuli 31act much in the manner of free bodies in their contacts with thematerial being cleaned. This is due to their being loosely secured tothe wire loops 29 for pivotal, rotational, and translational movement.Each annulus can rotate in its plane, and, due to its large centeropening, it can swing on the head of the loop and the loop head can moveacross the annulus opening. This freedom of the annuli means that thereel unloads as it slows down. The beater does not need to flex theloops. The arrangement of the loops in uniseriate rows parallel to thereel shaft 27 allows the annuli of a row to act in unison on the surfaceof the material to be cleaned. They vibrate the material to loosen thedirt adhering thereto.

Having thus described my invention, an embodiment thereof, and itsoperation, I claim:

1. A suction wand head, having: a tubular handle, a head, as part of thehead thereof, an elongated beater casing secured to an end of and withits elongation transverse said handle, a beater reel rotatably mountedin said casing and coextensive with the elongation thereof, said casinghaving formed therein a rectangular air opening whose length issubstantially coextensive with said reel and casing elongations, saidhandle and said casing being so connected that air may how in saidopening, thru said casing, and then into and thru said handle; an airdriven axial flow fan motor mounted in said handle with its axis coaxialof the axis of said tubular handle; means connecting said fan to saidreel whereby rotation of said fan Will rotatably drive said reel, saidmotor being driven by the flow of such air thru said handle; said reelhaving a shaft for so mounting said reel, loops along and extendingradially of said shaft, and loosely threaded on each of said loops anannulus adapted to act as a swingle, said reel, loops, and annuli beingso proportioned that portions of each annulus, upon rotation of saidreel, are extensible thru said casing air opening a particular radialdistance related to said reel, and each said annulus being loose enoughon its said loop so that it may move radially thereof at least saidparticular radial distance; and secured to said casing a shelfsurrounding said opening and in the plane thereof, and ribs formed inthe face of said shelf which is away from said casing, said ribs beingat an acute angle to the direction of elongation of said casing andcoextensive with one edge of said shelf.

2. The combination of claim 1 in which said shelf has a slot formedtherein parallel to the elongation of said opening and across saidopening. from said ribs, said slot being open in said face, and in saidslot a brush having bristles extending outside of said slot.

3. The combination of claim 2 in which said loops are arranged indiametrically opposed uniseriate rows parallel to said shaft.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,265,790 Kirby May 14, 1918 1,883,851 Felty Oct. 18, 1932 1,952,999Lucke Mar. 27, 1934 2,570,759 Bramhall Oct. 9, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS38,834 Denmark Tune 4, 1928 501,190 Italy Sept. 1956 513,286 GermanyNov. 25, 1930 648,413 Germany July 30, 1937 781,510 France Feb. 25, 1935

